The King Of Fighters 95 / ザ・キング・オブ・ファイターズ'95 / Za Kingu Obu Faitāzu '95

The King of Fighters '95[a] (KOF '95) is a fighting game produced by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 1995. It is the sequel to The King of Fighters '94 and the second game in The King of Fighters series. It is also the first game in the series to be ported to other home consoles besides the Neo Geo AES and Neo-Geo CD thus making SNK a second-party developer, with versions released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Game Boy. It was also rereleased in The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii.

The game features a similar cast to KOF '94 with the exception of the USA Team, which was replaced by the Rival Team. The plot features a new King of Fighters tournament once again promoted by the criminal Rugal Bernstein, who wants to take revenge against Kyo Kusanagi, who defeated him in last year's tournament. The game also introduces a sub-boss character, Saisyu Kusanagi, who is the father of Kyo. KOF '95 also introduces the fighter Iori Yagami, who becomes Kyo's rival in the series.

One of the main focuses in the creation of The King of Fighters '95 was the introduction of the Rivals Team, most notably Iori, who became one of the favorite characters from the staff. The game has received mixed reviews from various video games publications. Most writers have complained about the response from controls and long loading times from the PlayStation port. However, the introduction from the enhanced version of Rugal, Omega Rugal, as well as the differences between all the characters have been noted to be one of the best parts from the game.
Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Athena Asamiya and Iori Yagami.
The gameplay and rules are mostly unchanged from The King of Fighters '94. The main addition is the introduction of the Team Edit feature, allowing the player to create a custom team from any of the game's twenty-four characters in addition to the pre-defined teams in the game. Through the main play mode, players must defeat all of the teams from the game in order to fight the bosses: the brainwashed Saisyu Kusanagi, followed by a stronger Rugal Bernstein.

Plot
The King of Fighters '95 marks the beginning of a story arc that later became known as the "Orochi Saga". However, the only elements from the Orochi Saga known in this game is the introduction of Kyo's rival, Iori Yagami, and Rugal's use of the snake demon Orochi power.

Rugal Bernstein, thought to have perished in an explosion in the previous game, had in fact survived and sent out invitations to the teams from the previous game signed simply ‘R'. Only one of the previous teams failed to attend the new tournament: the American Sports Team, now replaced by the "Rival Team" consisting of Iori Yagami, Billy Kane (from Fatal Fury: King of Fighters), and Eiji Kisaragi (from Art of Fighting 2). Saisyu Kusanagi, Kyo's father, appears as a fighter for the first time (having made a non-playable cameo in KOF '94) as a computer-controlled sub-boss character. After defeating Saisyu in the arcade mode, it is revealed that Saisyu was being brainwashed and that Rugal will fight once again as a boss character, but as an enhanced version named "Omega Rugal".

Characters
Japan Team (Hero Team)

Japan Kyo Kusanagi
Japan Benimaru Nikaido
Japan Goro Daimon
Fatal Fury Team

United States Terry Bogard
United States Andy Bogard
Japan Joe Higashi
Art of Fighting Team

Japan Ryo Sakazaki
Italy Robert Garcia
Japan Takuma Sakazaki
Ikari Warriors Team

United States Heidern
United States Ralf Jones
United States Clark Still
Psycho Soldier Team

Japan Athena Asamiya
China Sie Kensou
China Chin Gentsai
Korea Team

South Korea Kim Kaphwan
South Korea Chang Koehan
South Korea Choi Bounge
Women Fighters Team

Japan Yuri Sakazaki
Japan Mai Shiranui
France King
Rivals Team

Japan Iori Yagami (New Character)
England Billy Kane (New Character)
Japan Eiji Kisaragi (New Character)
Mid-Boss

Japan Saisyu Kusanagi (New Character)
Final Boss

Germany Rugal Bernstein
Development
The KOF '95 project began with the concept of introducing Iori Yagami as Kyo Kusanagi's rival. As such, developers gave him traits to expand that relationship such as similar abilities and ancient rivalry between both of their clans. During the initial location tests to determine the popularity of the game, Iori was the character who stood out most, also becoming a favorite of the developers.

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Developer(s)
SNK
Publisher(s)
SNK
Director(s) Masanori Kuwasashi
Producer(s) Eikichi Kawasaki
Takashi Nishiyama
Designer(s) Akihiko Nasu
Akiko Yukawa
Chikara Yamasaki
Programmer(s) Khozoh Nagashima
S. Fujinuki
Artist(s) Toshiaki Mori
Composer(s) Akihiro Uchida
Masahiko Hataya
Pearl Sibakiti
Series The King of Fighters
Platform(s)
Arcade
Release
25 July 1995
Genre(s) Fighting
Mode(s)
Single-playerMultiplayer
Arcade system Neo Geo MVS

#The King Of Fighters 95 #snk neogeo #arcade